Tempting the Artist (6 page)

The next forty-five minutes, they
cracked jokes and talked. Christina’s heart warmed as they laughed
and swiped away happy tears, their banter livelier than usual. For
the last three or four weeks, they hadn’t been able to meet
consistently. At work, she and MJ were on the same job, renovating
a strip mall. Jada had left the company shortly after getting
married and Toni, a master plumber, had cut her hours, only working
part-time since giving birth to Craig Jr. five months earlier. She
saw Peyton almost every day since her sister was the boss. Yet,
Christina didn’t realize how much she missed having all of them
together until now. Sure they got on each other’s nerves, but they
were the best of friends and more importantly, family.

“
Okay, where do you want me
to start?” Toni asked, crumbling the burger wrapper and tossing the
remains in the trash. “Craig and the baby will be here to pick me
up in a couple of hours.” Of course, after she mentioned the baby,
she fielded questions about Craig Jr. and his latest
accomplishments. They all stood around Toni’s cell phone, cooing
and gushing over photos and short videos of him rolling over from
his back to his tummy and trying to scoot around.

Hearing Toni talk about Craig, and
their little one, sent a bit of longing through Christina. Until
recently, even at the age of twenty-nine, she hadn’t thought much
about marriage and having a family. Not until Luke.

Christina mentally shook herself. She
wasn’t going to let thoughts of him invade her mind tonight. Not
like the last two days. Awake or asleep, dreaming about Luke left
her frustrated and horny. So many times, she had wondered what they
would say or do if they ran into each other again. Somehow
Christina had imagined their first run-in going differently. Very
differently. They had only dated for a few months, but during that
time, she found a connection and freedom she hadn’t known existed.
Spending time with him made her want to live life on purpose and be
who she really was, not what others expected her to be.

“
Earth calling CJ. Come in
CJ.” Jada waved her hand in front of Christina’s face. “Where’d you
go? Toni wants to know where to start.”

“
Oh.” Christina glanced
around at her cousins who were looking at her strangely. “How about
in the kitchen?” Christina loved the kitchen. With the high-end
stainless steel appliances, dark granite countertops, and maple
custom-made cabinets, everything was top of the line.

“
Sounds good,” Toni
said.

“
I’ll help in here too
since there are tons of boxes marked kitchen, and I remember how
you had the cabinets organized at the other house,” Jada
said.

“
Why is this door locked?”
MJ asked from across the room and down a short hallway that could
still be seen from the kitchen. She stood at the door to the second
bedroom.

“
Oh, I need to get the key
from Zack,” Christina lied. She knew someone would ask about that
room and had already planned her response.

“
Why the heck did he need a
locked room? Did he have some sex apparatus or kinky toys in here?”
MJ lifted a perfectly arched eyebrow, directing her question at
Jada.

“
Yep,” Jada said, the lie
rolling off her tongue. She knew Zack used the space as a guest
room and she was the only person who knew what Christina had on the
other side of the door.

Christina would have to thank her
cousin later.

She walked into her bedroom and
stopped short when her sister held a painting, her bulging eyes
revealing her shock.

“
What is this?” Peyton
turned the canvas around to Christina.

“
Art.”

“
Don’t get smart. You know
what I mean. What’s gotten into you? Not even mom has naked people
hanging on the walls.” The painting in question was a Sasha Knight
original. One of the artist’s most provocative pieces and
Christina’s favorite. “I can’t believe you bought something like
this.”

“
It’s a work of art.”
Christina took the painting, and leaned it against one of the
bedroom walls then stepped back to peruse it. Tastefully done, the
silhouette of a couple making love up against a wall with a streak
of moonlight, from the window next to them, casting a glow over
their sweat slicked bodies. Sexy without being vulgar. The contours
of their joined bodies angled just right had no private parts
exposed except for one of the man’s firm butt cheeks. The painting
reminded her of her affair with Luke and the passion they once
shared.

“
Surely you’re not planning
to have some naked couple hanging on your walls.” Her sister’s
incredulous tone was in line with her rigid, walk-a-straight-line
attitude. “What will people think?”

Christina turned to her sister. “I
don’t care what people think. They don’t have to come over here if
they have a problem with my art collection.” For the past few
years, her collection had grown to over twenty pieces. She barely
had enough wall space to hang half of the pieces.

“
So you don’t have a
problem with Gramma or Grampa seeing that?” Peyton pointed to the
picture.

Christina narrowed her eyes
at her sister and then returned her gaze to the piece of art. Okay
maybe she did have a problem with
them
seeing a nude painting hanging
on her wall, but they rarely stopped by for a visit.

“
You know what? I blame
that guy, Luke, for this reckless attitude of yours. Maybe it’s
good you two broke up. He might have been a big-time New York
lawyer, but he was a bad influence on you. The piercings,” she said
referring to the tiny diamond stud in Christina’s nose, “now
paintings of naked people. Yeah, he was definitely a bad
influence.”

“
No, he wasn’t!” Christina
said. “You can talk about me all you want, but leave him out of
this. That man was the best thing that ever happened to
me.”

“
So what’s next tattoos?”
Peyton’s tone was judgmental, but Christina had stopped caring that
her sister didn’t approve of the way she lived her life. Especially
lately.

“
Maybe.”

“
Are you kidding me?” She
shook her head and folded her arms across her chest. “You know
what, whatever. I’m just glad you came to your senses and broke up
with Luke. Maybe now you’ll get back to normal instead of walking
around looking like … like Lisa Bonet with the wild hair, Bohemian
clothes and—”

“
Dang Peyton, can’t you
give it a rest?” Jada asked from the doorway.

“
You need to stay out of
this, Jada,” Peyton said.

“
No, you’re the one who
needs to stay out of it. You know how much CJ cared for Luke, and
you’re in here talking bad about him? What’s that all about? Maybe
if you found your own man, you could stay out of everyone else’s
love life.”

Christina knew Jada regretted the
words the moment they left her mouth. Peyton, divorced for several
years, hadn’t dated since then. Her whole life was Jenkins &
Sons Construction. They all wanted her to get back out there and
find love, but her failed marriage or any reference to a social
life, was a sore spot with her.

“
PJ, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t
have said that,” Jada apologized.

“
No, you’re right. What CJ
does or who she does it with is none of my business.” Peyton
stormed passed Jada.

“
That went well …or not.”
Christina dropped down on the corner of the bed and shook her head.
Just once, it would be nice for them to get together without
someone getting mad or getting their feelings hurt. Normally it was
Martina getting on someone’s nerve, but lately, Peyton seemed to be
taking her unhappiness out on everyone.

“
Me and my big mouth. I
should’ve minded my own business and let you handle your sister.”
Jada walked farther into the room and sat next to Christina. “I
just can’t stand to hear her giving you a hard time about Luke,
especially since I know he’s a good guy.”

Yeah, he was a good guy, Christina
thought. Until she let him walk out of her life. If she could just
get a do over, she would do things differently.

“
Don’t worry about it. I’m
not sure what her problem is these days.”

“
I know.” Jada crossed her
leg and leaned back on her elbows. “Toni told me that she’s been a
pain at work too. What she needs is a warm body to curl up with and
maybe expend some of that pent up anger doing the horizontal
tango.”

Christina threw back her head and
laughed. “Oh, so you get some on the regular now and think that’s
the answer to all problems?”

“
Hey, I’m just sayin’.”
They giggled and slapped high five.

It had been awhile since Christina had
done anything horizontal, but she had to admit. A couple of rounds
of some good lovin’ always made everything feel right in the
world.

“
I’m glad you’re back,” she
said to Jada. “See what you’ve been missing around here. You go off
and get married and miss out on all the fun.”

After marrying Zack, Jada had quit her
job as a sheet metal worker. No one was really surprised. Jada was
allergic to manual labor.

Christina glanced over her shoulder at
Jada and smiled. “You look good … happy. Marriage is agreeing with
you.”

Jada sat forward and held
her small hand out, the cluster of diamonds on her ring finger
sparkling. “Marriage is unbelievable.” She lowered her hand. “You
know I get on Zack’s nerve, but that man has to be the sweetest
person that ever walked the face of the earth. He puts up with my
nonsense, but he’s like a boulder when he doesn’t want to do
something or doesn’t approve of something. Even my pouts can’t move
him. And I can pout.”
Jada pursed her lips
and folded her arms. Her lips curled into a pout, and they both
laughed
. Christina knew all too well how
Jada used to get what she wanted from whomever she wanted.
Including Zack.

The family had been shocked
to find out the couple had eloped to Las Vegas, especially since
Jada had always talked about having a wedding fit for a princess.
When Christina had asked why she forewent a wedding, Jada told her
that she didn’t need all the hoopla that went with a large wedding
when she had the man of her dreams. Her once self-centered cousin
was a different person, proving that falling in love could change
anyone.
Now, she was married, volunteering
at non-profit organizations and taking college classes in
fashion.

“
So have you talked to him
since he’s been in Cincinnati?” Jada asked, cutting into
Christina’s thoughts.

Christina knew the
him
was Luke. Jada was
the only one of her cousins who knew Luke fairly well since he and
Zack were good friends. But since her cousin had been traveling
over the last few months, they hadn’t had a chance to discuss the
break up in detail.

“
I saw him.”

“
What? And you didn’t tell
me?”

“
Nothing to tell. I saw him
the other night when I was walking home.” She filled her cousin in
on the encounter and included how he turned her down when she
invited him into her place. “I don’t know what I expected. That
last night in New York, he was pretty mad.”

“
I don’t blame
him.”

“
What? How can you say
that?” Christina knew she could have and should have handled things
differently with Luke, but she couldn’t believe Jada condoned his
behavior.

“
CJ get serious.
You
had suddenly decided
to stay in New York instead of coming back to Cincinnati with him.
That probably had him imagining the worse. The poor guy probably
didn’t know what to think.”

“
He should have known me
well enough to know that I had a good reason. It had nothing to do
with being involved with another man.”

“
How would he know that?
You guys were still getting to know each other, and it was a long
distance relationship. I’m sure he had no idea that there were
secrets between you two. You could have handled that situation
differently. You
should
have handled it differently especially if he meant
anything to you.”

“
Do you still care for
him?”

“
There hasn’t been a day
that’s gone by that I haven’t thought about him. I know you never
believed in everyone having a soul mate, but I honestly believe
that he’s mine.”

“
I don’t know if I
necessarily believe that everyone has a soul-mate, but being
married to Zack has made me consider the possibility. Falling in
love with him was like finding the missing puzzle piece to my life.
We fit. I’m a better person because of my hubby.”

“
You can say that again,”
Christina mumbled and then burst out laughing when Jada elbowed her
in the arm almost knocking her off the bed. “I’m just sayin’, you
were a mess before he came along. Selfish, superficial, and I could
go on.”

“
Yeah, well don’t. We’re
not talking about the old me. We’re talking about you. So answer me
this, if you really cared about Luke, why didn’t you just tell him
months ago what was going on with you?”